In Abbey Party Rents’ experience, rentals are typically a significant percentage of an event budget. Everything, including accurately quoting out jobs, correctly analyzing logistical requirements, and timely invoicing, can make the difference toward winning a bid and maintaining repeat business.
IBISWorld, a market research organization specializing in long-range forecasting industries, has predicted the wedding services and catering industries are expected to grow 2 percent annually through 2019, and the trade show and conference industry will grow 2.7 percent annually in the same period.
Combining the annual revenue of those three industries comes to approximately $65 billion. Given that time is the competitive currency of today's economy, it is more important than ever that everyone works smarter so as to not miss out on that growth.
There are three main categories of renters that all require separate modes of operation to be competitive: the wedding planner, meeting planner, and caterer. The three may all work together on the same types of jobs, but when it comes to rentals they demand different services and products.
The wedding planner provides a creative flair and regularly pulls equipment from different rental providers to remain on budget while maintaining a unique sense of style. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to the setup so the wedding planner works with specific rental consultants from each company that understand the planner’s working patterns. This makes it easier to plan in advance and save the client time.
The meeting planner, on the other hand, is a last minute magician and typically works with one company and the same type of equipment on each order, which makes planning the logistics and communicating this to the company more efficient and fluid. The meeting planner can fire off an e-mail at 12:30 a.m. and know the order will get done.
The caterer is a cross between the meeting planner and the wedding planner and typically sends out different types of quote requests to various sales people in the catering organization. The caterer knows which employees are best suited for any given event.
In all three situations, understanding the who, what, where, when, and why is important to communicate effectively. But to be truly competitive, it’s most important to understand each renter’s role and how it plays into a market where time is a commodity.
To learn more about Abbey Party Rents, visit abbeyrentssf.com.
